Finding Humanity
by Writing Cat And Dog
Summary: Ianto Jones is walking home from his first date with the amazing Lisa Hallett when they are attacked by a strange figure in a dark alleyway. What transpires will leave Ianto changed forever. Can he find his humanity through the hunger? Ghoul AU Rated M for gore and violence.
1. Chapter 1

The only streetlamp nearby flickered in the dark, its electric bulb close to dieing. Clouds covered the full moon and the stars, eliminating the only other light source.

Ianto barely noticed the unusual darkness as he walked hand in hand with the most wonderful girl he had ever met. Her name was Lisa, and he had only just finally had the courage to ask her out. This was their first date, and it had been a lovely one as well. They had gone to the cinema to see some new action movie that Lisa was very invested in, and then had gone to dinner at a fancy new french restaurant. Ianto had insisted on walking Lisa home after they ate.

"God knows what's out there at this time of night." was his reasoning. Lisa rolled her brown eyes, but entwined her fingers with his as they set off towards her flat.

They were about five blocks away when Lisa tugged his arm and said, "Wait! I know a shortcut! It'll be much quicker, I promise."

Ianto almost protested, he would rather walk with her longer, but her face was eager and he relented. She pulled him an apartment block down and pointed to a dark alley, "Through there."

Ianto turned to look at her, "Are you sure about this, Lisa? It looks awfully dark."

Lisa scoffed, "Wuss."

It was Ianto's turn to roll his eyes as he followed her into the alleyway. He kept glancing around, searching for hidden figures hiding in the shadows. Halfway through, Lisa stopped and pulled him around to face her.

"Ianto Jones, don't tell me you're afraid of the dark!" She chuckled, placing her hands behind his neck and tugging him close. Ianto's heart sped up as her lips touched his and they kissed. He was so engrossed in the moment that he barely heard Lisa's groan and the ripping sound before she fell to the ground. He froze in shock, not quite understanding what had happened until he saw the hole in her chest where her heart should have been. Looking up, he saw a figure standing close in the dark. He fumbled for his phone, his hands trembling badly, and flipped it open so he could see by what little light it offered.

There was a man standing in front of him holding Lisa's bloody heart in his gracefully outstretched hand. The man smiled and said cheerily, "Wanna bite?"

Ianto dropped the phone in his rush to run away, but before he could get a few steps away, something reached out and grabbed him. He glanced down at his waist and saw three red... things wrapped around him. They almost looked like tentacles, but they were bloody and had large bumps on them. Before he could move or even call out, the tentacles yanked him back against the man's chest. Lisa's heart was placed right in front of his wide terrified eyes and a voice whispered in his ear, "Should I taste it first?"

Ianto shivered, the voice was calm and smooth, but he could sense danger behind every word. The man raised the heart to his mouth as Ianto watched and took a generous bite out of it. The blood squirted from the side and dripped down Ianto's face. Ianto flinched back away from the spray and finally screamed. Before anyone could hear, a fourth tentacle wrapped itself around his mouth.

"Hush now, little one, I'm not going to harm you." The man said soothingly, running his blood soaked hands through Ianto's carefully combed hair.

The tentacle forced Ianto to his knees, the gravel digging past his pants and into the skin of his knees. He could see now that they were attached to the man... no, thing's back. The creature took another bite out of the heart and chewed thoughtfully.

"Now what am I going to do to you, pretty little thing? I can't eat both of you now can I?"

Ianto trembled as the thing raised a finger to its bloodied lips, "I know just the thing."

Ianto watched, heart pounding, as the creature bent down and yanked his head back. It looked him straight in the eye before leaning over and placing his mouth over Ianto's. Ianto tried to struggle, but the grip on his head was too strong. It began to retch into his open mouth and Ianto felt something slippery slid to the back of his throat. He gagged, but it just kept slipping down until he couldn't feel it anymore. Tears stung his eyes as the creature unwrapped its tentacles from around him.

"Enjoy." It said, before disappearing into the dark.

Ianto kneeled in the alleyway next to Lisa's still warm body and screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

The drive to the docks was completely silent except for Owen's occasional curses at especially reckless drivers and cars that wouldn't move fast enough. Jack sat in the passenger side, staring thoughtfully out the window until they arrived, Owen parking in the garage near the empty tourist shop. Before Owen could escape, Jack grabbed his arm and said, "Owen, about last night..."

But Owen cut him off, "I don't want to talk about it. It's never going to happen again so just drop it."

Jack nodded and got out of the car, striding towards the docks with his coat billowing out behind him. Owen watched him go, a pang of heartache shooting through him.

When Owen arrived at the entrance to the tourist shop, Jack was standing there talking to a man in a bulletproof vest and a red beret.

"Bloody UNIT." Owen said under his breath before walking up to the two men. Jack's eyes were narrowed and his face grim; Owen stood next to him and listened to what the UNIT soldier was saying.

"We found it in an alleyway. Never seen anything like it, some kind of ravenous alien, keeps saying it's hungry but won't eat anything we give it. Can't figure out what it is, so the higher ups sent me here to bring you in. Can't say I'm pleased about it, though."

Jack ignored the last comment and asked, "What does it look like? The alien."

The UNIT soldier shrugged, "Looks like a regular human. Except... its eyes are a bit weird. They're almost... red."

Jack looked thoughtful, "Doesn't sound like an alien I know of, but I'll give it a look."

The UNIT soldier nodded and gestured for them to follow him to the black unmarked SUV parked nearby.

They were met at the underground door to the UNIT base by four men. Three with heavy guns and the fourth dressed in a nice blue suit. The man in the suit stepped forward and outstretched his hand. Jack didn't take it.

"Where is the alien?" He asked instead.

The man looked a bit jilted, but soon regained his calm exterior, "My name is Director Adams, come inside."

Jack and Owen followed him into the big steel door and Owen looked back as it closed with a clang.

"Shouldn't we have brought back up? Even just Suzie?" He whispered to Jack, but the taller man shook his head.

"No, they don't want too many of us to see inside their secret base." Jack said, rolling his eyes.

"This way, please." Director Adams motioned them forward with his hand into a sterile white room with a bulletproof glass enclosure inside of it. Behind the glass, Owen could see a figure hunched over in the corner, shaking and rocking back and forth. The smell of bleach hit his nose full force as Jack stepped closer to the glass. Director Adams pulled him back, "Careful. We don't know how strong this thing is."

Jack stepped forward again, ignoring the warning, and tapped on the glass.

The effect was almost instantaneous, the hunched figure whipped around and its eyes stared straight at jack. They were black, not just the pupils but the sclera as well, with red veins flowing through them. The creature, whatever it was, crouched down like a cat stalking its prey and then pounced, slamming against the glass and nearly shattering it. Thick cracks appeared on the surface, and Owen lept back, his hand automatically jumping to his Glock. Jack placed a hand on Owen's wrist, "Wait."

The alien crept back, its strange eyes watching their every move. Jack drew closer then kneeled down in front of it, watching it with his calm blue eyes. Owen drew his gun just in case.

The creature began to hiss and pace side to side. Jack frowned as he looked at it then said, "Have you tried feeding it human meet?"

Director Adams looked horrified, "Of course not!"

"Go get a body or something. I think I know what he is."

Director Adams gestured to one of his guards then turned back to Jack, "What is it?"

"I've never seen one in person, but I've read the lore..." Jack trailed off, his eyes never leaving the creature, "I think... I think this is a Ghoul."

Director Adams laughed, "Like a ghost? No way."

Jack looked at him seriously, "No. A Ghoul is different then a ghost. They are corporeal creatures that feed on human flesh. It's also said that they have what the Japanese call Kagune, weapons to help them hunt."

"Well this one doesn't seem to have any weapon." Director Adams said mockingly. Jack ignored him, instead he glanced at the door as the guard came back, a frozen torso in his arms. Jack looked at it distastefully, then told the guard to put it in through the slot at the bottom of the glass. The guard did so.

The Ghoul had had its eyes on the torso ever since it came into the room and now it lept on it ravenously, its fangs tearing into the flesh and chewing straight through bone. As they watched in horror, something began to sprout from the creature's back. Long purple tentacles with sharp edges cut into the torso, holding it down so the Ghoul could eat faster. The torso was gone within minutes and the Ghoul licked its lips and stared, still hungry, straight at Jack.

"Keep feeding him." Jack said, "Then we'll take him off your hands."

Director Adams began to protest, something about wanting to do experiments, when Jack raised a hand for him to stop, "I don't want to hear it. We're taking him and that's final."


	3. Chapter 3

**PWEEZ REVIEW!**

When Ianto woke, his teeth were buried in a detached upper arm, blood dripping down his chin and the metallic taste of it burning his tongue. He jerked back from the arm and began to hyperventilate. Memories of the night before began to flood through his head; Lisa, the creature, being forced to swallow... He shuddered at the taste in the back of his throat that would not seem to leave no matter how hard his fingers scraped at his tongue trying to rid himself of the tang. His breathing choked up and tears stung his eyes, rolling down his dirty cheeks. Curling up into a ball, Ianto began rocking back and forth, trying to calm himself down.

There was a knock on the glass separating him from the door at the other end of the room and he looked up with his tear-streaked face to see a man in a blue suit standing behind the glass with a gun in his left hand. Ianto flinched back and pressed himself further into the corner as the man motioned three men with heavy guns through the door into the enclosure. Ianto struggled to his feet as the men spread out around him like they were trying to trap him. The men moved all at once, pinning him against the wall and pressing a thick collar around his neck before stepping back outside the glass. The man in the blue suit came in and approached Ianto, who had slid back down to the ground and curled himself up.

"What is your name?" The man asked, kneeling beside him. As he talked, Ianto noticed a scent surrounding him that smelled almost... delicious. All of a sudden, he began acutely aware of the large vein in the man's neck, watching as it throbbed with every word the man said. He couldn't even focus on what the man was asking, he was so intensely drawn to the man's scent. Without warning, he lunged towards the man's neck, teeth ready to bite.

Before he could reach the man, a powerful shock thrummed through the black collar around his own neck and he crashed to the floor while the man looked on. The current kept running through him and he writhed on the hard ground in agony until it stopped. He lay there gasping and the man stood up, saying to the guards outside, "He's still not ready, feed him some more then we'll turn him over to Harkness."

The guards nodded and retreated from the room with the man in the suit following, leaving Ianto alone.

Owen was in the med bay when the ghoul arrived. He heard the alarms go off as the secret door opened and UNIT soldiers poured in with the boy handcuffed and terrified in the middle of them. As Owen went up the stairs and into the main room, he could see that the ghoul's eyes were a dark blue now, not the black and red they had been before. He seemed more... human as he stumbled when one of the UNIT soldiers shoved him forward. Owen could see Jack's frown at their rough treatment of the creature, though he couldn't fathom why.

Director Adams was absent, but another man stepped in front of the soldiers and addressed Jack, "We have brought the alien as requested. May I inquire as to what you intend to do with it?"

"He's not technically an alien," Jack explained, sighing heavily, "ghouls are native to earth, though I thought they had died out centuries ago."

The soldier narrowed his eyes, "That does not answer my question."

Jark scoffed, "It's none of UNIT's business what we do with him. And you can go tell your superiors that too. Now get out of my base."

The soldier nodded and left, the other UNIT men trailing behind him leaving the ghoul standing alone in the middle of the room, handcuffed to a table. Jack approached him cautiously and examined the red marks around his neck while asking, "What's your name?"

"Ianto Jones." He stuttered out, gazing around at the Hub in wonder. He flinched as Jack motioned for Owen to come examine him.

"Check and see if UNIT did anything to him." He said, stepping back so the doctor could get to work.

Owen's examination upturned two trackers and a listening device embedded into Ianto's skin. He deftly removed them and moved on to the red marks around his neck, "What are these?"

Ianto craned his head to look at the marks, "I think they shocked me when I..."

"When you what?" Both Jack and Owen said at the same time.

Ianto shook his head, "Nothing."

Jack placed a hand on his shoulder, "Look we can't help you unless you tell us everything. Okay, Ianto?"

Ianto nodded, "I... I think I tried to attack him or something. I couldn't control myself..."

Here his voice got choked up and Owen motioned for him to follow him into the med bay where he sat down on the cold metal examination table, "You best tell us everything, Ianto."

The boy nodded and began to tell them what had transpired. Jack and Owen listened closely while Suzie and Tosh came into the med bay to stand beside them. Tosh shuddered sympathetically as Ianto described the attack and Suzie looked grim.

"We'll need to find this other ghoul." She said seriously, "Before he attacks again."

Jack nodded, "We'll keep an eye out for any similar attacks, but I'm afraid there's not much we can do other than that. It's not an alien so it'll be even harder to track as it looks just like any human."

Ianto had been sitting there listen, "What was it? The... thing."

"A ghoul." Jack explained, "They feed on human flesh and I think this one did something that made you like him."

"Made me like him? So I... eat people?" Ianto looked horrified, remembering the scent of the man in the blue suit and the way he had lunged towards him with hunger in his mind.

Jack sighed, "I believe so. Owen, we have plenty of dead bodies lying around don't we? Ianto can feed on those while we try to figure out a way to reverse this."

Ianto held up a hand, "Wait, wait. I'm not going to eat people, there's no way."

Jack looked sympathetic, "I know it's hard, but if you don't eat you'll get like you were before."

"Before?"

"You don't remember?" Jack frowned, "You went, well, rabid. Hunger was dominating everything else and you would have attacked anyone in that state."

Understanding dawned on Ianto and he turned white, "So if I don't eat..."

Jack nodded, "Exactly. Owen, why don't you start preliminary tests while he's down in the med bay. Take his blood, that sort of thing. Maybe we can figure out a way to reverse this."

Owen nodded and began gathering supplies while Ianto stared down at the floor dejectedly.


End file.
